TWO SETS OF JONES'

Which Ones Will You Be?

This song is a bit dated, the 90's to be exact.  However, we were new Christians when it was popular and this song described how God brought us from the first set of Jones' to the second.   He saved our marriage and gave us an amazing love for each other and for our family.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted calf with hatred. Proverbs 15:17 NKJV

Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife.  Proverbs 17:1 NKJV

DROWNING

I absolutely love this picture.  I NEED one for my house or maybe it would get too familiar; too familiar like my salvation that I so often take for granted.  

I should be so thankful that Jesus saved me from drowning in my life of sin and rebellion, that He freed me from a life of misery but most importantly, a life that was headed straight for Hell.

He saved me from Hell but I was headed there because of my love of sin, LOVE OF MEN,  my need for constant physical and emotional attention, addiction to alcohol and diet pills, selfishness (although that one He's still working on, along with lots of others!)  materialism, vanity, a love of money, debt, lying, slandering others, trashy mouth, love for adultery, lusting, dishonor of my parents, wanting what others had, disrespect and dishonor of my husband, hating people, pride and the list goes on and on.   

Have I arrived?  Ha! No definitely not!  First Timothy 1:15 says, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came in to the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."  

On another note, this picture is refreshing for today.   There are more days than not when I feel like I am drowning in ungratefulness, pride, anger, frustration, selfishness and more.   That's when I remember, "Oh wait, all I need to do is fall on my knees and beg Him, just as Peter did when walking on the water,  save me Lord from this life of little faith.  Do I do it?  No, in my pride I continue on in my misery, thinking I can fix it myself and that surely it has to get better and of course......it doesn't.   But when I do, it's amazing!  I can't explain it to you.  Somehow Jesus takes my wee little, insignificant plea of surrender and gives me a peace that is unexplainable.  Oh, my issues don't go away, things don't get better but I have the peace to handle those things in a Godly way.  Those hard things are here for our refinement.

One of my favorite bible teachers once said, "Your circumstances don't make you who you are, they simply reveal who you are."  For example, I could say, "I never yelled like this until I had all of these children. They make me so mad."  That's not the truth, I was an angry woman and the LORD used those children to squeeze the anger out of me and show me what's really inside. When you squeeze a lemon, lemon juice comes out.  If you're squeezed, what comes out? Does pride, disrespect, pouting, anger, jealousy, a need for control?  Jesus said in Luke 6:45, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.  For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

I am so thankful 18 years ago Jesus reached into the darkness and turned on THE LIGHT for me so I could see my need for Him.  Blessings this week!

For extra reading:  Matthew 14:29-33

MOTHERHOOD

I love Motherhood.  It's just as plain and simple as that. 

In two weeks, we will celebrate a new birth, our tenth birth actually, but first we are going to celebrate two others.  Our only daughter for 12 years is about to turn 13, yes 13, I can't believe it, I just can't.  She was born on September 11, 2001, the actual day, September 11, when the planes flew into the buildings.  She was our shining light on that dark day and has continued to be since.  She's a little bit spunky or strong-willed, whatever you would like to call it.  We always say it's because she is supposed to be a missionary in some poverty stricken land with the job of taking care of 420 orphans.  She loves babies.  Have you ever heard of Gladys Aylward?  Yeah, well that's our daughter.  She never says never.  She's a go to girl who will get the job done when asked and she is a blessing to our family.  It was hard to find a picture of her because she's always taking the pictures.

Thank goodness God gave her a baby sister 18 months ago.  Surely you've heard the saying, "A daughter is a daughter for life and a son is a son until he takes a wife."   We told her before we found out she was having a sister, "Honey, we have 7 boys who will take care of their wives once they get married.  You better pray for a sister, otherwise, it's all on you!  You get to take care of us when we're old."   

We will celebrate another birthday on September 21st.  I call him our little ball of energy and if you see the "Wishes and Mushies" post over to the right on the side bar, that post is all about him.  He has so much energy!  He reminds me of the Energizer bunny, he never runs out of energy.  He will definitely be a command man when he grows up because he likes to be the boss.  He tells me every Sunday morning when I get in the car for church, "Mom, you look so pretty and you smell so goooood, just like a flower!" 

Then of course, our new little bundle of joy will be here on the 24th.  We can't wait. 

Before I go, here's a short video our daughter made this afternoon that I wanted to share with you.  I've already shared some of it on Google plus. She has this amazing gift with movie making and picture programs.  She makes these videos in like - minutes, it's amazing.  She begged me to let her fix it and add more to it before I posted it but I thought it was great and I didn't want to wait.

The house is ALMOST FINISHED!!!!!   I'll post some more pictures later.........gater